What I am essentially advocating is not the absense of collaboration but
the replacement of coerced collaborations with VOLUNTARY cooperation.
In the organized world, dependence was unavoidable and most of the
transactions arising between individuals and institutions were coerced:
people had no choice but to pay taxes, no choice but to go to an office or
factory to work, no choice as to which country they were a citizen of, no
choice in Japan at least to change their job, no choice as to who their
colleagues and fellow team members were.
This need no longer be the case- I personally believe that it is now
possible for me to be completely independent of coerced transactions. I
can take my financial affairs off-shore, need not associate myself
formally with any institutions or collective groupings and not only
survive but (hopefully!) do well. If the value of my ideas exceeds the
cost I charge for them, why can I not write my ideas down independently,
publish them on the Internet from a server located in my home, and charge
people using a microcommerce system? This is true for any individual- gang
member, team member or whoever. Technologies are rapidly falling in price
and increasing in power, making then more widespread amongst the entire
generaal public.
But this is the far end of independence- people will choose to voluntarily
associate with other people and collaborate to implement ideas to meet
customer requirements in the form of "collapsible corporations":
impermanent, informal interactions. This is combining complementary
capibilities for mutual gain.
I am not advocating that we all grow our own vegetables, produce our own
printer cartridges and so on. Purchasing decisions to buy or sell are
voluntary transactions and therefore welcome. Competition ensures I have a
choice of vendors for any purchase I need or want to make.
Once more, I am saying that colloborations will arise and should arise.
They will be transformed in a business setting but take many of the same
forms socially because of the requirement for face-to-face contact.(This
is not anarchy!). I am simply saying that all transactions of any type
will be voluntary in future and not forced.
Regards, sincerely Simon Buckingham,
3 new books just live at http://www.unorgn.com
--Simon Buckingham <go57@dial.pipex.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>